Developing for Oculus Rift is on the checklist of several game developers across the world right now. This new and revolutionary entry to the gaming world has got everyone excited. If you already did not know, the Oculus Rift is a virtual reality gaming headset, designed to provide an immersive gaming experience to the player wearing the headset. Such an experience has not been seen in gaming so far. That is why everyone is excited about developing for Oculus Rift. If you feel left out, then it is still not too late. Since the official release date of the Oculus Rift has not been announced, there is still time for people with good ideas to enter the market and start developing for Oculus Rift. The right kind of idea can produce a blockbuster game which could set the standards of what to expect from the VR platform. That does sound very exciting, but first you need to have the right kind of idea. If you are clueless about how to get started with developing for Oculus Rift, then do not panic. This article will have you covered.

To begin with, you need to get yourself an Oculus Rift development kit from the official website of Oculus VR – www.oculusvr.com. Then you just need to start developing your game and test it with your very own development kit, and when the headset is launched for public consumption, you can push your game to be among the first hits of this new platform.

Without further ado, let us examine a few ideas for developing for Oculus Rift. While traditionally the Rift is a gaming headset, you will notice that some of these ideas include a non-gaming experience as well. That is because with virtual reality, the line between gaming and reality gets blurred, and each game seems like a totally unique experience in itself.

VR Space Tour

The outer space has always caught humankind’s fancy. But it is not possible for everyone to become an astronaut. With virtual reality however, that dream can come (virtually) true. You could be developing for Oculus Rift a space tour that allows the user to take a virtual tour of how it feels to be an astronaut in space. Since the VR experience would be from a first-person perspective, the user could be placed inside a virtual astronaut’s suit and taken on a tour aboard a space shuttle. Or the tour could be a spacewalk, slowly floating through space and exploring the solar system. Or it could be something even more ambitious, and explore the universe outside the solar system.

The primary objective of such a virtual tour would be to give users the experience of how it feels like to go through the harsh routine of an astronaut, and how the beauty of space makes it all worth the trouble. Depending on how many resources you have while developing for Oculus Rift, you can make the tour as simple or as complex as you please. Since you will be developing for Oculus Rift, all the experiences will be projected in an immersive environment, giving the user a satisfying tour of outer space. While developing for Oculus Rift with this idea, you will have the opportunity of fulfilling the dreams of many people, because it is not every day that someone gets to experience the outer space. So do consider developing for Oculus Rift with this space tour idea, as it will be a very satisfying and exciting project to work upon. And since it is very different from the regular kind of games in the market, it will find wide acceptance too.

VR Underwater Tour

Similar to the space tourism idea above, the underwater tourism idea allows players to explore the depths of the world’s deepest oceans, merely by putting on the virtual reality headset. This is another exciting opportunity of developing for Oculus Rift with a promising, high-potential idea. In the VR underwater tour, the player gets a simulation of going down in a submarine, and then getting out to explore the wonders of the land below. The tour is designed to give players a very realistic experience about exploring the ocean floor.

Developing for Oculus Rift gives you the opportunity to work with exciting projects such as these, which are usually not attempted on regular gaming consoles. In fact, there are hardly any games in recent times which have been based entirely underwater. And in real life, man has not explored the oceans to the fullest extent. So virtual reality can offer a really good chance for people to start exploring the underwater life and have an out of the world experience, while still being on the same planet! Most people might not even have thought about underwater exploration in the real world, because there is very little awareness about the field. This game will be enjoyed by people who are willing to give something new a try, and discover a whole world of fun. This might not count as a very traditional game, but next-generation games will indeed gradually move away from more conventional forms of gameplay and offer gamers varying levels of unique experiences, like underwater exploration. You can be the pioneer who offers such unique experiences to the present and next generation of gamers across the world.

VR Sports

This is a huge idea. Developing for Oculus Rift opens up a whole world of opportunities in the form of sports. Every year, there are many sport-based games being released into the market. And sport based games were big when the Nintendo Wii was launched with motion gaming. Now you can use the same concept and use sports to quickly build up a portfolio of virtual reality games.

The basic aim of developing for Oculus Rift is to give gamers an immersive virtual reality experience. And what better way to demonstrate that than by means of sports? Most gamers like to play at least one kind of sport, including football, soccer, basketball, baseball and so on. Each of these sports offers a chance of developing a truly immersive experience in virtual reality. Developing for Oculus Rift gives these games a never before seen twist, and gamers will actually be inside the sports, playing the game among the team. First-person perspective sport games are quite rare, so this might prove to be a little challenging, but a good development team should be able to pull it off efficiently.

Sports and developing for Oculus Rift really go hand in hand. Each is suitable for the other. One drawback of developing sports for Oculus Rift is that it requires a lot of investment. Compared to other kinds of games, sport games require a bigger investment for the project to get off the ground. This means that if you want to develop a sports title for Oculus Rift, you will have to be willing to invest a little more cash than you anticipated before. If this is not a huge problem for you, then you can start developing for Oculus Rift. Virtual reality sports could soon become as popular as the very famous title, Wii Sports.

VR Fitness

Another trend that the Nintendo Wii started was the rise of fitness based sports. People today are highly conscious about their fitness and are adopting new methods of tracking their fitness. Even smartphones come with fitness trackers these days. Developing for Oculus Rift can give you the opportunity of developing a virtual reality fitness game. While this will not directly impact the way people exercise, it will offer them a better surrounding to practice their exercises in. Let us explain.

Most people do not have time to go to the gym or an open place to exercise regularly. So they usually exercise in a corner at home, or somewhere similar. But with the VR fitness game, they can transport themselves into a beautiful and serene environment fit for the kind of exercise they would like to practice in .

Developing for Oculus Rift with a fitness game in mind is a very interesting challenge. The Rift corresponds to every movement that the player makes, so the game will have to be optimized to read the player’s movements and suggest improvements with regard to posture and style. These tiny features can really make a difference in the shape of the final game. You can add such features of your own and bring out a really well-developed fitness game. Since there is literally very little competition in this genre, developing for Oculus Rift a fitness game, will be a very good idea indeed.

VR Street fighter

There is an unexplained sadistic pleasure in punching your friend in a video game. That feeling can be amplified several times over with a streetfighter game for the Oculus Rift. Since such a game would in the fighting genre, developing for Oculus Rift will be a novel experience. There are very few games in the fighting genre which have a first-person perspective. That is why it will be a unique opportunity in developing for Oculus Rift a fighting game that is based on the famous streetfighter series of games.

Such a game would require gamers to physically throw punches and kicks, or use a joystick to do so. Either way, the Rift headset will ensure that the gamers see the action from a first person perspective. This can be both scary and thrilling at the same time. It can be daunting to suddenly see a character attacking you in a virtual world. But once the initial fear is gone, such a game would be immensely enjoyable, and is bound to become a huge hit.

You could make the game more interesting by adding special moves, that will only add to the fun element of the game. Imagine throwing out some funny poses that look totally silly to the outsider, but in-game, unleashes a powerful special move on the opponent. Since developing for Oculus Rift is only an extension of regular game development, such special moves should not be hard to implement in the game. You can observe that such features add significantly to the overall enjoyment of the game. This would be exciting for a console game. For a virtual reality game, it would be quite addictive.

As you can see, developing for Oculus Rift can be made easy once you select the right idea. You can even add your own tweaks to any of the ideas mentioned in this article. Developing for Oculus Rift would seem like a new process to many, since the field is yet to be fully developed, but if you build a good team of developers then it will be able to easily adapt to the changes and then developing for Oculus Rift will become quite easy.

As such, do step up and try developing for Oculus Rift. The early developers will surely be remembered for their work in the pages of history. This is a huge platform with a lot of potential. And gamers worldwide are going to be quite excited about gaming with their friends in an immersive virtual environment. Needless to say, there is going to be a huge demand for people developing for Oculus Rift. So add yourself to the list and start developing for Oculus Rift, with ideas from our list or a unique one of your own. Once you start early, you will also be ahead of the other developers in learning all about developing for Oculus Rift, and will thus be able to quickly adapt to the platform, bringing out better and better games with every release. Thus developing for Oculus Rift is a significantly long term investment that will give you a valuable share of an even more valuable market. You will thus have to take a decision fast on whether or not you will be developing for Oculus Rift. This is the moment, and you’re to decide if you’ll be a part of it or not.